The present invention relates to the general field of telecommunications.
More particularly, it relates to activating a wireless communications interface on a terminal, such as, for example, an interface of the Bluetooth™, or WiFi™ (Wireless Fidelity) type.
The term “activation” (or correspondingly “deactivation”) is used herein with respect to a wireless communications interface to mean switching on or starting the interface (or correspondingly switching it off). In other words, in the meaning of the invention, a wireless communications interface does not transmit any signal (not even a presence signal), so long as it is not activated.
In general manner, wireless communications interfaces of the Bluetooth™ or wireless local area network (WLAN) type enable a terminal to connect to a home network or to a private or public communications network via an access point. This connection is possible only when the communications interface is activated.
At present, a wireless communications interface is activated and deactivated manually by the user of the terminal: the user makes use of a dedicated menu of the terminal to select an interface for activating or deactivating, and then specifies which action is to be performed (i.e. activation or deactivation).
In order to avoid repeatedly activating and deactivating communications interfaces, the user has the option of leaving the wireless communications interfaces of the terminal activated permanently.
Nevertheless, that option consumes a considerable amount of energy and therefore has a non-negligible impact on the battery life of the terminal.